cord blood banking?

[Loula]

Hi

Can anyone tell me about this, with regards to cost and how to organise? My mum is interested for us as bubs will arrive soon and is somthing she did for my brother' child.

I think it is a lot cheaper in the UK though?

Cheers


Lou

[Yeddi]

I've looked into this, it's about $4000 for 18 years. I personally decided against it, not just because of cost but because of the disadvantage in that they have to clamp the cord early in order to collect the blood (although they do normally do this for an actively managed 3rd stage anyway, so if that's the option you're going for it doesn't change much) but I personally preferred the idea of allowing the placenta to act as a blood-ballast and waiting for the cord to stop pulsating.

[onthefly]

Yeah, personally I think your baby is better off if they can delay clamping of the cord till it has stopped pulsating so he gets all the precious cord blood. And the cost will pretty much eat up your baby bonus.
If you want to do it, you have to contract with a private cord bank company I think - there are probably some brochures in your bounty bags or stuff like that. It's different in different states too, I think.

[Loula]

Thanks ladies. My first choice was to delay cord clamping then mum said it was only £500 in uk. I looked on line and it seems about 3k + here. I'm just going to stick with delaying the clamping.

Thanks.

[Janie]

Yes, it is pretty expensive here. If for some reason the delayed cord clamping isn't going to happen, you can look into donating your cord blood. This is something that has to been organised in advance though. And you have to give birth during certain hours etc, I'm not even sure if your hossy offers it. Just thought I'd put it out there I hope you get to delay clamping though and all of this chat is unnecessary! I'll send you a link on fb that might help.

[TeniBear]

That's strange, I read just last week in That's Life that it was free? (they had a story on it)

Anyway, as someone else said, it's more useful going to your bubs to begin with

[allycat06]

That's strange, I read just last week in That's Life that it was free? (they had a story on it)

It's only free if you donate it. If you want it stored for your own child then it costs $$$!

[TeniBear]

Ah, that makes sense then. I suppose if I had to choose between banking it for my own bub and donating it, I'd donate anyway. It's more likely someone else will need it than us.

That said, I'm still going the delayed cord clamping route so all my talk is for nothing

[*Infinity*]

We looked into it when DS was born. Very expensive and our midwife told us that they're not actually permitted by the hospital to help us collect the blood, we'd have to do it ourselves, get it collected by the company during certain hours etc. Decided against it in the end.

[Loula]

Very interesting Suga, thanks

[buliej]

I've already signed up for donation of cord blood - the optional paperwork was sent with the other hospital paperwork I had to complete when I booked for my delivery. I'm a big advocate of organ donation, so this kind of fits into my philosophy. However, the more I hear about delayed cord clamping, the more I question my decision. It's a hard balance because if my child needed cord blood to help them down the road, I'd be so thankful that someone donated to a cord blood bank. I know there was an article discussed on bellybelly some time ago about delayed cord clamping - does anyone know where that was posted?

PS - I have read both sides on whether it would be beneficial for your child to have their cord blood banked - the general feeling I was left with was that if the child whose cord blood was banked is the child who is sick, their cord blood would probably not be helpful - but, if you had a 2nd child and could use the cord blood of healthy child 1 to help sick child 2 or vis-a-versa (cord blood of healthy child 2 to help sick child 1), then this could be useful. I do think that if cord blood donation became as popular as blood donation, there could be a great benefit to society in general (but that's only my fairly uneducated opinion).

[onthefly]

Kelly's article on cord clamping is HERE.

[Cherished]

I was pretty much told what suga said. I also called a couple of companies who store it and collect in our area and I found that they weren't very forthcoming with information, which I think they should be as a private service provider and the $$$$ that they are asking for. The most concerning question I asked was what the % of stored cord blood is actually used and they went into the old we can't tell you that, it's confidential! I replied with "I am not asking for your clients names, just a percentage of how often it's actually used/needed". I can only presume that it's practically 0% or they would be advertising it as a very useful thing to do if the figures were good. I was also annoyed at the cost they are charging and with no REAL back up as to why anyone should pay that kind of money other than in the future it may be needed. Donation is not an option where I live but you'd think the companies that do collect in this area would charge a 'small' fee for collection and get funding for research or on sell it to the companies who do the research and then the parents who donate will still have their babies cord blood stored kwim

[*Beema*]

We were going to do it with DD, we could afford it at the time, had the paperwork organised, and then DD arrived 7 weeks early and all was forgotten. a week later when I was still in hospital with DD I got a phone call from the company saying they were jsut getting our package ready to send out and I said not to bother as she had already been born

We aren't bothering to do it this time, I am hoping to be able to do delayed cord clamping if it is possible at the time of delivery, one of the discussion questions I have for my OB this week